Steadfast Love – Psalm 118

A text – Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

¹ O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever!   ² Let Israel say, “His steadfast love endures forever.”

¹⁴ The Lord is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.

¹⁵ There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous: The right hand of the Lord does valiantly;
¹⁶ the right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly.”
¹⁷ I shall not die, but I shall live and recount the deeds of the Lord.
¹⁸ The Lord has punished me severely, but he did not give me over to death.

¹⁹ Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.                                       ²⁰ This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it.

²¹ I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.
²² The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
²³ This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
²⁴ This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

A reflection:

This is a jubilant psalm. If your congregation uses the texts the lectionary suggests, you hear this psalm every Easter Sunday. It is about being as good as dead and then having the Lord save you, or even raise you from death. It is the ancient Hebrews’ story, and it is then even Jesus’s story. And of course, if we believe in the resurrection, it is our personal story too.

God is the main actor in this psalm, having heard the cries of the psalmist (or even the nation) and who steps in to save the one who is dying. God is the one who faithfully rescues those who call out. And so the response of everyone is to praise God and give thanks. God is valiant and steadfast – brave and reliable. Everything we humans know that we are often NOT.

In so many ways life would be better for us if we could acknowledge who and whose we are. The world is God’s. God made it and we live in it. But generally we humans run around thinking we are the be-all and end-all and our decisions are wise and final – we have the last word. And then, when we find ourselves in deep trouble, the victims of terrible ideas or bad planning, and we need to be rescued, then we admit there may be a higher power or a greater being who could rescue us. What would happen if we lived in that mindset all the time? What about waking up every morning and saying “Thank you, oh God, ruler of the universe, for waking me into another fine day of breathing and loving”? Wouldn’t we start the day knowing, acknowledging who and whose we are? This is a day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Even this day, Good Friday, on which we remember the death of our Lord, is a day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it – in his great gift to humans who are not steadfast, but who are very grateful.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for being our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Thank you for keeping all your promises to humans that you love, even though we almost never really deserve it. Holy are you, and steadfast and wonderful. Amen.